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View Poll Results: Should the work week be reduced?

Voters

51. You may not vote on this poll

The work week should be increased to more than 40 hours, or eliminated

Re: Shortening the work week?

Originally Posted by cpgrad08

I have never heard someone complaining of having too many hours. Usually people don't get enough hours. Americans want to work. Giving them less hours just means there going to make less money. Not necessarily, and, there is more to life than money, people just have to learn how to handle it, as I have...

I have heard of many doctors and nurses complaining of working excessive hours.....

Re: Shortening the work week?

Originally Posted by Barbbtx

You're trying to spread the wealth around in a sneaky way. Quite socialist of you. YES!, this is not the American way. The wealthy must maintain their share of the pie , so why not make it 90%, rather than just 80%. ???
Besides, not everyone thinks work is such a dreadful thing and something to avoid. Some people actually like to work.

BION, I was one of those who enjoyed working, until the age of 55, then the short term jobs, low pay, lousy conditions were horrible for me.
I would have accepted a 30 hour weeks at BMY in a heartbeat rather than face unemployment and or lousy "jobs".

Re: Shortening the work week?

.Earthworm@ YES!, this is not the American way. The wealthy must maintain their share of the pie , so why not make it 90%, rather than just 80%. ???

Make your own damn pie and stop stealing other people's pie.

When you see a fat man and a skinny man, do you think "oh, look at that. That fat man stole food from the skinny man, so he didn't get enough to eat."?
I'm not wealthy, I'm pretty darn poor, but that doesn't mean I'm entitled to somene else's pie.

Re: Shortening the work week?

Many companies are going to shorter work weeks to reduce layoffs.

"This Administration will constantly strive to promote an ownership society in America. We want more people owning their own home. It is in our national interest that more people own their own home. After all, if you own your own home, you have a vital stake in the future of our country."" GWB

Re: Shortening the work week?

Originally Posted by Kandahar

I addressed this issue in my original post. Yes, going from 40 hours to 35 hours will slightly reduce the size of paychecks...IF you are one of the people who is working 40 hours. If you're one of the people working 0 hours who is now able to find a job and work 35 hours, it greatly increases your paycheck. From a macroeconomic standpoint, this is far better for the economy. It means fewer people are drawing upon government benefits, and it provides a large, immediate stimulative boost to the economy (because, for example, a person is far more likely to spend their first $10,000 of income than their sixth $10,000 of income).

And aside from the financial aspect, it seems likely that it would increase the level of well-being and happiness within society. It will reduce the number of hours worked, while ensuring that more people actually have jobs. Most people want to be gainfully employed as it improves their sense of self-worth...but those who are employed often wish they had more time to spend with their families. This would help solve both of those problems IMO.

I guarantee you that some or many will seek out a part-time job to supplement their income, thus negating those gains. Better to expand the economy and create new jobs through economic expansion rather than cut the ability of people to make income at their current jobs through forced reduction of hours.

Re: Shortening the work week?

Originally Posted by earthworm

Only from a Liberal, an innovative idea.
I remember working Saturday overtime, 6 hours and accomplishing the same as I did during the week -8 hours.
Who came up with 8 hours anyway - this must be questioned.
If a man really works hard, he becomes fatigued and un-productive after 6 hours.
This, of course, varies from man to man.
How do the Japanese do this, or the French, or the Germans ?
We could run a study on a state by state basis.
But we must do something, just to stand still or regress is not good.

Well, in Taiwan, we have an eight-hour workday five days a week plus four-hours every other Saturday. Typically, we have a long lunch break where it is customary to take a short nap after eating lunch. This is also done in schools through high school as well.

Re: Shortening the work week?

Originally Posted by Kandahar

Furthermore, reducing the work week would be a good way to help tackle our unemployment problem. If an employer needed a certain number of labor-hours and couldn't get as many labor-hours from each worker, they would need to hire more people. This would reduce unemployment.

The amount of work that needs to be done in the economy is not constant. If we reduce the amount of hours that can be done by a single worker this will raise employers costs, thereby reducing our productivity. This overall will make us worse off. Think about this for just one second. If working less hours actually did make employees more productive, why is every corporation in North America not already doing this?

Re: Shortening the work week?

Originally Posted by Barbbtx

That's a reasonable thing for a company to do.

Yes it is. Economic conditions have changed how some do business.

"This Administration will constantly strive to promote an ownership society in America. We want more people owning their own home. It is in our national interest that more people own their own home. After all, if you own your own home, you have a vital stake in the future of our country."" GWB

Re: Shortening the work week?

Originally Posted by Kandahar

Furthermore, reducing the work week would be a good way to help tackle our unemployment problem. If an employer needed a certain number of labor-hours and couldn't get as many labor-hours from each worker, they would need to hire more people. This would reduce unemployment.

You have to be kidding. This has been tried and failed miserably. Hoover did this near the beginning of the Depression and all it did was make people poorer because they couldn't work as much as they wanted to.

Originally Posted by Kandahar

The free market will not reduce the 40-hour work week on its own; if we think it's desirable to work less than that, it will require some government prodding. The 40-hour work week has been in place since 1950, despite the fact that the American worker of today is vastly more productive than his 1950 counterpart. Furthermore, in most industries, companies have an incentive to work employees as many hours as they can get away with, because it reduces training costs.

Part-time workers don't exist? The fact is, people work as long as they do because they WANT TO work as much as they do so they can earn as much money as they can. It's different from country to country, but for the most part that is the case here.

Last edited by phattonez; 02-28-11 at 12:23 PM.

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully. Psalm 24"True law is right reason in agreement with nature . . . Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature [and] will suffer the worst penalties . . ." - Cicero